Introduction and the case for collaboration
The Guidance on partnership working between allied health professionals and education (Scottish Government, 2010) was written after fourteen months of extensive engagement with health and education professionals and with parents. The guidance therefore is very much rooted in current practice around Scotland. This review of the literature has two purposes. The first is to demonstrate that much of the practice identified in the guidance is supported by research evidence. The second is to summarise some of the key ideas on partnership working which are currently being debated in the literature.
Huxham (2003) identifies two key concepts operating within the field of partnership working. The first is "collaborative advantage" and the second is "collaborative inertia". Collaborative advantage is a central concept throughout this guidance. For partnership working to be worthwhile "something has to be achieved that could not have been attained by any of the organisations acting alone" (Huxham, 2003, p.403). The guidance on partnership working between allied health professions and education invites partners, including parents, to ask constantly what it is they do better together that could not be done alone. The result of failed or weak partnership working is what Huxham called "collaborative inertia". In this instance the outcomes of collaboration are either very slow in emerging or minimal when compared to the time and resources involved.
A range of policies in recent years emphasize the importance of partnership working. The terminology varies and includes interdisciplinary working, multiagency working, collaborative working and indeed partnership working. The policies range from the integrated community schools initiative (SOEID, 1998) to the more recent Getting it right for every child development (GIRFEC, 2009). The approach taken in the current guidance and in the literature review is to seek the collaborative advantage and the evidence that supports the case for collaboration.
This literature review is not comprehensive or exhaustive. It seeks to identify instances of evidence based practice where it has been possible to identify the advantages or difficulties associated with partnership working. The structure follows that of the guidance itself and so begins with outcomes of the partnership for children and young people, then focuses on processes and the delivery of service and finally looks at literature on leadership.
Full literature review and references